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Disappearing Gun
"It's like one of those damned Tankbusters, but three times bigger." :-A Defender Tactical Analysis *'Three times the firepower': Enemies of the Vietcong should fear the Disappearing Gun, and with good reason. When faced with light vehicles or infantry, the Disappearing Gun can simply rip them to shreds. *'Three times the flak': Surface targets are not all that are vulnerable to the Disappearing Gun, however; aircraft are equally vulnerable, since the Disappearing Gun is capable of filling the air with a torrent of flak shells. *'Three times the surprise': The Disappearing Gun, true to its nickname, can also burrow into the ground, waiting for the opportunity to spring up and surprise an unsuspecting foe. *'One third the penetration': Unfortunately, the Disappearing Gun has its flaws. While the sheer weight of fire is enough to tear apart thin skinned vehicles, the the rounds of the Disappearing Gun simply bounce off heavier armour, often leaving nothing more than a dent. Operational History "Where the hell was this gun?" :-A Stewart tank commander Throughout the Second World War, one can find records of many outlandish projects conducted by the Soviets, one of the most well known being the JS series of superheavy tanks. One of the less well known variants, the ZSU-333 was the result of one of the many Soviet attempts to replicate the AA Gun. To be more precise, an attempt to create a mobile version of the AA Gun. A massive, triple barrelled autocannon mounted on an equally large chassis, the ZSU-333 was effectively a scaled up, mobile copy of the Allied AA Gun, but with one twist. The Soviets were able to give the ZSU-333 unrestricted turret traverse, which allowed it to target ground and air with equal ease. The heavy rounds of the ZSU-333 proved able to shred through almost any aircraft fuselage, and could punch through the thin armour plating of light vehicles effortlessly. Unfortunately, it suffered from a variety of problems. First and foremost, the massive recoil required the ZSU-333 to deploy before firing, and even then it was near impossible to fire a ZSU-333 with any semblance of accuracy. In addition, the ZSU-333 was both horribly expensive and required constant maintenance. Following the untimely death of Premier Stalin, the project was scrapped. A single prototype existed however, so the Soviets shipped it off to Vietnam. When they went to war, the North Vietnamese quickly put it to use. For considerable time the ZSU-333 wreaked havoc on the South Vietnamese Air Force, and quickly gained a reputation for itself. Then, one day, the ZSU-333 was assigned to support a tank brigade launching an assault on the Reservist Airfield at Da Nang. Following torrential rain, the ZSU-333 got bogged down in the mud. Foolishly, the tank brigade decided to continue with the assault without the ZSU-333, and was promptly annihilated by a Reservist Revenant Gunship. Subsequently, a company of Peacocks found it still bogged down in the mud, and its crew desperately trying to get the massive vehicle unstuck. The Peacocks were able to destroy the ZSU-333 before the crew realized what was going on. With their vehicle destroyed, the crew promptly surrendered. This would not spell the end of the ZSU-333, for a Vietcong patrol found the smoking remains of the ZSU-333 a few days afterwards. Though the chassis was wrecked beyond repair, the gun turret was mostly undamaged, which the Vietcong were able to salvage. The ever resourceful Vietcong repurposed the ZSU-333 into a stationary defence, mounting it on a massive hydraulic lift that was cobbled together from the parts of various destroyed vehicles. With a few modifications, the Vietcong had a formidable base defence. During the first operational test of the ZSU-333, it was able to surprise a squadron of Hawkers and annihilate them entirely. Following this successful initial test, the Vietcong were somehow able to replicate the ZSU-333 (most likely by cannibalizing the parts of destroyed or heavily damaged Chameleons). While it still suffers from accuracy issues, the sheer volume of lead it spits out is enough to shred larger targets like light vehicles and aircraft. With its ability to pop out of the ground and surprise pilots, the ZSU-333 quickly came to be known as the "Disappearing Gun". The name has stuck, both among pilots and Vietcong alike, and even today any Allied or ARVN pilot operating over the skies of Vietnam fears few things more than the sudden appearance of a "Disappearing Gun". Just the Stats Category:Buildings Category:Vietnam